One thing I noticed is that the AI is more or less dependent on traditional maps, even on Master. Goggles Cup was extremely hard for me because the AI (at max level) seems to be at its best with normal courses (765 Stadium and Zoned City in this case). Phantom Cup, on the other hand, was pretty easy since avoiding the pitfalls/hazards and not running off the side of the tracks put me ahead of the curve without much effort. Fun fact, the rival in Master mode isn't locked to the 3 characters that match your chosen racer, so any racer who makes it to 2nd place can be your rival. (Well, even on other difficulties, the rival is only locked to one of those characters in the second race. If someone else steals 2nd for the first two races they'll become your rival on the third no matter what.)
The ai wasnt character specific? I always thought that it was both because each of fizzy's videos where he is mk2, knuckles was always his rival (And vice versa as a knuckles main)
